Sheldon Whitehouse: the top 400 incomes in america in 2008 had an average income each in that one year of $270 million. that's a pretty good year when you can make more than $225 million in a single year. that is really the american dream big time. but what they actually paid in

Sheldon Whitehouse: taxes, those 400, on average was a rate of 18.2%. that's their total federal tax rate, all the taxes put in. what did they actually pay? not what the nominal rate is but what did they actually pay. the i.r.s. calculated this on average. this is not an estimate.

Sheldon Whitehouse: this is the i.r.s.'s calculation. so although we spend a lot of time debating around here whether the top income tax rate for the wealthy should be 35% or 39.6%, folks, that's not what they pay. the tax code is filled with special provisions that tend to either exclusively or disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

Sheldon Whitehouse: so the top 400 income earners in the country pay an average tax rate of 18.2%. so who else pays an rate in this country? well, if you're a single filer, you hit 18.2% when your salary